Free Republic

LONDON (AP) — Middle East envoy Tony Blair says Barack Obama launched his peace initiative because he's concerned about what might happen to Israel if Palestinians unilaterally declare statehood. Blair told an audience of business leaders gathered in central London on Thursday that Obama is "frankly worried about the position that Israel is in." The ex-prime minister says that Obama's initiative — rejected by Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu — is "an attempt to fill a vacuum which he sees as dangerous, particularly dangerous for Israel in the run-up to September." Mideast watchers have speculated that Washington launched its peace initiative...

Israel is ready "to immediately begin" peace talks with the Palestinians and Syria, PM Benjamin Netanyahu has said after returning from the US. But he insisted that any peace settlement "must find a solution to Israel's security needs". Arab states should join talks, he said, but would need to make concessions as well as Israel and the Palestinians. At the talks on Monday, Mr Netanyahu was pressed by President Barack Obama over US plans on a two-state solution. But the Israeli leader - who also came under pressure to rein in Israeli settlement-building - refrained from endorsing the idea.

President Obama’s critical meeting with Binyamin Netanyahu next week has become the acid test for the Administration’s commitment to peace in the Middle East, King Abdullah of Jordan said... “All eyes will be looking to Washington,” ...If there are no clear signals and no clear directives to all of us, there will be a feeling that this is just another American Government that is going to let us all down.” If Israel procrastinated on a two-state solution, or if there was no clear American vision on what should happen this year, the “tremendous credibility” that Mr Obama had built up...

“In the Middle East,” President Obama told the Turkish parliament on Monday, “we share the goal of a lasting peace between Israel and its neighbors. Let me be clear: the United States strongly supports the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security.” He added: “That is a goal shared by Palestinians, Israelis, and people of good will around the world. That is a goal that the parties agreed to in the road map and at Annapolis. And that is a goal that I will actively pursue as president.” His words give rise...

The United States will push hard for Palestinian statehood despite a new rightist government in Israel but anticipates a rough road ahead, a U.S. official said on Thursday. "We're going to be working hard to see what we can do to move the process forward. But we're under no illusions. It's not going to be easy," said State Department spokesman Robert Wood. "We have to engage constantly and remind the parties of their obligations and to try to set up a framework, a process for getting us toward that goal of a two-state solution," Wood added, referring to the goal...

JERUSALEM – Sen. Barack Obama told the Palestinian leadership during a trip to the region in July he supports their rights to a capital in eastern Jerusalem, but he asked them to keep his remarks secret, according to a Lebanese newspaper...

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland (CNN) -- Israel is "ready now for a deal," said an Israeli official attending Tuesday's U.S.-brokered Mideast summit aimed at laying the groundwork for future peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have "very good chemistry," the official said, adding that he is hopeful a document "will be finalized before we leave Washington Wednesday night." -snip-

(IsraelNN.com) An estimated 25,000 people took part in a mass prayer service at the Western Wall against the positions that Israeli government leaders plan to take at the Annapolis summit. The prayer service is to be followed by a massive protest, co-sponsored by the Yesha Council of Jewish Communities of Judea and Samaria, near the Prime Minister's residence. The protest is entitled, "It Will Blow Up in Our Face." Prime Minister Olmert, of course, will not be at home; at the time of the prayers, he was meeting in Washington with U.S. President George Bush in preparation for the Annapolis...

JERUSALEM, Israel (AP) -- The Israeli Cabinet on Monday approved the release of 441 Palestinian prisoners in a gesture to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, but stopped short of U.S. demands to halt West Bank settlement construction before a crucial Mideast conference. The Cabinet vote took place ahead of a meeting between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas later in the day. The two men were trying to break a deadlock in preparations for the U.S.-hosted peace summit, which is expected to take place in Annapolis, Md., next week. Israel sees the conference primarily as a ceremonial launching pad for new...

Perhaps even more than the secular left, the religious left has insisted that every U.S. military action, actual or proposed, over the last 30 years is a disastrous reprise of the Vietnam War. And these activivist prelates work very hard to ensure that the calamitous collapse of non-communist Indochina is reenacted in other regions, with the U.S. and its allies in full retreat. The desired result, no matter how murderous for the actual inhabitants of the abandoned country, will be a victory for "peace." Over 5,000 years of recorded history should provide some other war situations from which to draw...

By KARIN LAUB For Israel, the U.N. cease-fire deal is far from perfect. A U.N. force deploying in south Lebanon as part of the truce will have trouble keeping Hezbollah at bay for long or prevent the Iranian-supplied guerrillas from rearming, critics said, pointing to past failures of international peacekeepers. The U.N. terms will buy temporary calm, but make the next war between Israel and Tehran's proxy army inevitable, former Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and some military analysts warned. "It begs the question, `What was it all for?'" Shalom said, reflecting a growing chorus of criticism. Israel had little...

he Omega Letter Intelligence Digest Vol: 47 Issue: 26 - Friday, August 26, 2005 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UN Makes its Move Undaunted by a litany of failures, scandals that would make Bill Clinton blush, its utter ineffectiveness at containing global problems like Saddam Hussein's Iraq, the Sudanese genocide or even a definition for the word 'terror', the UN has decided this is the perfect time to make a grab at the reins of global power. While the Democrats in the Senate fought to block John Bolton from the US Ambassador's seat, the globalists on Turtle Bay were preparing a special summit to...

I would say that pretty much since the bloody and muddy stalemate of WWI, there has been a growing orthodoxy amongst Western opinion leaders that is contra Von Clausewitz. In a nutshell, the orthodox logic goes something like this: 1. The Flanders mud, and the horrors of stalemate trench battles, endless artillery bombardment and chemical warfare, taught us that modern, mass, mechanized, highly destructive warfare is so damaging to civilization that war of any serious magnitude must now be considered uncivilized. 2. The League of Nations was the right idea but the implementation was flawed. 3. The leaders who started...

Jerusalem (jnewwire.com) - The Middle East News Line (MENL) reported Sunday Israel has acceded to a Bush administration demand that an interim Palestinian state be established in the entire Gaza Strip and most of Judea and Samaria during 2004. This state will come into being whether or not Palestinian terrorism continues and whether or not the Palestinian Authority cracks down on the terror groups, according to the MENL. It is believed that the establishment of Palestine will have a powerfully positive effect on President George W. Bush's aspirations for re-election later in the year. US proposal The US proposal for...

Jerusalem, November 20, 2003 Statement on UN Security Council Roadmap Resolution (Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser) In light of the United Nations Security Council resolution regarding the roadmap, Israel would like to reiterate the following: The Government of Israel accepted the roadmap along with 14 clarifications that it decided upon and this is the one and only diplomatic plan that Israel is prepared to carry out. The peace plan known as the "Roadmap", as accepted by Israel, can be carried out only through negotiations and agreements between Israel and the Palestinians. Judging in relation to the plan's implementation...

JERUSALEM - Israel announced Thursday it would construct 565 new homes in three Jewish settlements in the West Bank, further angering Palestinians unhappy over Israel's approval of a security barrier that cuts deep into the West Bank. Palestinians view both decisions as attempts by Israel to grab land they want for an eventual Palestinian state. Construction in West Bank settlements violates a requirement of the U.S.-backed "road map" peace agreement, which calls for a freeze of such building. Israel has says it will continue to build to accommodate what it calls natural growth. Zalman Shoval, an adviser to Israeli Prime...

BUSH AGAIN SAYS ARAFAT IS THE PROBLEM; BUT IN FACT, PALESTINIAN ARAB CULTURE OF HATE & VIOLENCE IS THE PROBLEM NEW YORK - President Bush, speaking at the United Nations, has again asserted that Yasir Arafat and a few other Palestinian Arab leaders are the only obstacle to Middle East peace--when, in fact, the problem is the entire culture of anti-Jewish hatred and violence which envelops Palestinian Arab society. Speaking at the United Nations on September 23, 2003, President Bush said that the Palestinian Arab cause "is being betrayed by leaders who cling to power but are feeding old hatreds...

Mon September 15, 2003 04:25 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration said on Monday it planned to withhold some funds from Israel because of its settlement activities in Palestinian areas. The deductions would come from a $9 billion package of U.S. loan guarantees to help Israel weather a deep recession and fiscal crisis. But administration officials said they have yet to decide whether to penalize Israel for building a fence through the West Bank. Congressional aides doubted the White House would carry out that threat. Under legislation authorizing the loan guarantees, the United States would deduct from the...

U.S. stopped Israeli raid to seize Arafat SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM Monday, September 15, 2003 The United States has prevented Israel's military from capturing the headquarters of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat. U.S. government sources said the Bush administration sent a harsh message to Israel to suspend plans to capture Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah over the weekend. The sources said the had military planned to raid the so-called Muqata'a on late Friday and capture Arafat. Both Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice telephoned Israeli and PA leaders and warned Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to...

Israel may choose to kill Yasser Arafat in its onslaught on "heads of terror", Ehud Olmert, the deputy prime minister, said yesterday. He described Mr Arafat's assassination as a possible way of implementing the security cabinet's decision last Thursday to "remove" the Palestinian leader.   Ehud Olmert: 'Arafat is one of the heads of terror' "Killing him is definitely one of the options. We are trying to eliminate all the heads of terror and Arafat is one of the heads of terror," he said. "In my eyes, from a moral point of view, this is no different from killing others...